Part II-II

won't back down

Heartland is a nightmare. Eyes stinging, wetness running down her cheeks from the acid bite of the air that the glasses can't shield her eyes from, Ruri struggles to not be crushed under the sight.

If she tried breathing without fabric pressed over her mouth, she'd end up coughing in a matter of moments. The smell of smoke is overwhelming and ash falls down like snow.

The stadium protected them from all of it, scaling the intensity down until they could block it out. Live in it.

Survive.

Outside of it, some buildings are still burning, even if the flames are nothing compared to yesterday. Smoke fogs the air so much, they notice the heat of a fire sooner than they see the light.

Sense of direction almost flees her tentative grasp as soon as the stadium disappears, leaving them seemingly alone in the world. Completely isolated. Like they are the only people in the entire world.

It's dead silent except for the crackling and pooping of flames that burn near silently like a camping fire. Once, they come across a two still living people, on death's door from shock and hopelessness and panic alone. The only thing they can do is direct them towards the stadium and hope they make it.

Ruri can't process that this is the same city she grew up in. It feels more like they were dropped into the apocalypse.

Duel Academia. Judai's duel school. The one that taught him Fusion. In a different dimension.

Rio-san. Her brother, Kamishiro Ryoga. Tenjo Kaito. Tsukumo Yuuma, the undefeated Duel Champion.

They knew.

They tried, and failed to stop this.

(She's aware of her deck in a way she wasn't before. Like something is watching her, like warm sunlight, like resolute strength. And amongst it, a Number.)

The road is blocked, forcing them to climb over a mountain of rubble. Misstepping, Yuto almost set off an avalanche that buries them under tons of stone.

With a heavy gulp Ruri stares at the pile at the foot of the mountain that would have killed them. By the time she has stable ground under her feet again, her bare legs are scraped all over (her school uniform has to go), scratches from sharp edges line her palms, she is trembling from nerves and they lost more than two hours.

Wordlessly, they refuse to acknowledge the grief they can see in each other.

They just have to keep going.

Make it to the hospital.

Get Yuto's parents.

Don'tthinkdon'tthinkdon'thinkDon'tthinkaboutmore.

More than once they have to backtrack to avoid fires or rubble they don't want to chance climbing over again. When the hospital finally appears before they eyes, it's not a safe heaven. Not a place they can recover from the exhausting, long trip. Not the place of their memories. Not even a ruin of it despite still standing.

The building itself may not have been hit by a blast, but the parking space in front of it was. Carters riddle craters and cars strew the edges of them. Countless people in and around a hospital - they would have tired to evacuate. There's not a trace of anyone.

Is this the place where Shun and her spend weeks recovering from the worst day in her life? Where the nurses sat with them in the garden and played a round of Duel Monsters? Where Uncle Takumi and Aunt Chiko left their office open for them for whenever they needed to see them?

Yuto threw up first. Ruri doesn't until they step inside.

Inside it's even worse. The hospital burned out, Rio-san said.

(Academia marching through the corridors and turning doctors, nurses and patients to cards.)

It burned out. Patients not able to run, sprinklers not enough, nowhere to evacuate to. It almost makes her hope that everyone was turned into cards, so that they wouldn't have to die painfully.

If they searched every room, would they find some bedframes still carrying their occupants as blackened, shriveled corpses?

Rage ignites in Shun like hellfire while while Judai's eyes glaze over the bare soot covered walls as though he doesn't even see it.

At one point Ruri must have fainted because from one moment to the next she's lying on the ground, alone except for Yuto who has collapsed against a blackened wall to put his head between his legs, shivering all over.

Even gathering all her strength, all Ruri manages is to pull herself up next to him and slump against him.

The room they are in might have been a visitor bathroom once, going by the tiles, but the ceiling came down on half of it. Sinks line the wall over their heads. A broken window blows in smoky air. She just sits there, feels Yuto's body heat and hears his unsteady breath and nothing else. There is not a thought in her mind.

"Let's see, you are Kurosaki Ruri. Hmmm, yes you must be." Ruri hardly even flinches at the unfamiliar slightly muffled voice, only just manages to lift her cheek from Yuto's shoulder. Yuto jolts as though stuck, though, head snapping up to stare at the figure in the doorway. Dark cloak, hood pulled low in the face, fabric hugging the visible part of his face snugly in protection against the air, the person studies something on the display of their duel disk. Duel disk. Not D-pad model. Dread widens her eyes.

Yuto jerks to his feet with a growl. "Who the hell are you?"

(Her bracelet catches the light weirdly, opal shining.)

The stranger doesn't even pay him the faintest flicker of attention. "Now, girl, let's go. The Professor is waiting." Stepping into the bathroom, his focus on her is -

-Ruri scrambles up and finds herself pressed with her back against the wall furthest from the man before she even realizes.

He keeps approaching, light on his feet. His every step rattles Ruri down to her bones and her vision tunnels. Time almost seems to slow, but it doesn't slow the cold burning aura. It's hunger wants to tear her limb from limb and laugh while she suffers -

As suddenly as the sensation came, it's over, Yuto's back in front of her and shielding Ruri from the eye of the demon -

The steps that thundered so loudly in Ruri's ears halt. "You. Who are you? ...no, it doesn't matter. Get out of my way." Yuto's stance hardens. Ruri finds her fingers curling into the fabric of his cloak, suddenly terrified for him.

"What do you want with Ruri?!" Yuto demands, arm flowing in front of him to activate his duel disk. "Leave us alone!"

"…duel?" The Academia soldier sniffs haughtily, entirely unaffected. "Well, I suppose I don't mind. It's not like there's any way to run. But you had better make it worth my time."

Yuto doesn't say anything, but Ruri can feel his hackles rise.

(Her bracelet grows warm. She doesn't notice.)

Forcing dread and fear and all into the corner of her mind she shoves everything in to keep functioning, she lets go of Yuto.

To protect him, she can't be afraid.

Ruri steps up next to her dear friend, activating her own duel disk.

"Hoh?" The face is concealed, but Ruri can feel the slow smile that spreads over their assailant's face by the chill running up her spine. "Well, this might be interesting. Do entertain me please, I get so little to have real fun with."

Tremble in her hand as she draws her five cards, Yuto a steady, warm (growingcolder) presence at her side, she can only hope her brother and Judai come back soon -

An explosion booms through the air and the no-longer-stable floor shakes.

"Oh, my, looks like you aren't the only ones with fighting spirit. For all the good that it'll do you. Or them," says the monster, turning his head in the direction the shock originated from with mild interest. "That was the last of them, I suppose…."

TBC

I was a bit bothered in the Arc-V anime by the fact that it looked like only Yuzu's bracelet had any power. There are some explanations about that flying around in the fandom, but I'm making up my own. I think that all of the bracelets had some power or another, but that only Yuzu's had the ability to forcefully separate the boys via teleportation and was thus the most flashy one. Ruri's we'll get a taste of in the next chapter. It'll be a long one again.